Costa Luminosa will transfer to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet in September and will start sailing as Carnival Luminosa in November 2022 from Brisbane, Australia.
The acquisition of Luminosa replaces previously announced plans for Carnival to take Costa Magica, which will now remain at sister company Costa Cruises.
The ship will undergo “some modest updates” to change from Costa to Carnival over the coming months ahead of starting services in November.
The ship will not initially have all of the Funship 2.0 branded spaces that are across the Carnival fleet.
Carnival Luminosa will operate seasonally until April from Brisbane, then reposition to Seattle, where it will sail Alaska itineraries from May to September, before returning to Brisbane for itineraries from October.
Luminosa is a sister ship to Carnival’s four other Spirit class ships that already sail for Carnival.
Entering service in 2009, the ship accommodates up to 2,826 guests and 1,050 crew.
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Cruises for Costa Luminosa from September onwards will be cancelled and Costa will be informing guests.
Costa Magica will continue to be a part of the Costa fleet and its cruises will be announced shortly.
In addition to Carnival Luminosa in Brisbane, Carnival Splendor will arrive in Sydney to resume sailing year-round on October 2.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said: “With our full fleet back to guest operations and the pent-up demand for Carnival we are seeing every week aboard our ships, the chance to expand with Luminosa and then the arrival of Carnival Celebration in November provides our guests with more choices and new ways to enjoy a Carnival vacation.
“Our Spirit class ships are very popular with our guests and Luminosa will be a great addition given the large number of balcony cabins which make her an ideal ship for this deployment.
“And equally important, this will allow Carnival to finally start our highly anticipated itineraries from Brisbane, so we’ll have two ships operating in Australia for the high season Down Under.”
With the arrival of Carnival Celebration this November, Carnival’s fleet will number 24 ships.